Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in
connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus
and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them,
however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began
to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the
Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number
of people believed and turned to the Lord.

- Acts 11:19-21

We're in a battle.
This is the ``spiritual warfare'' that the bible talks about.

Front-line troops are a much more important and accessible target to
the enemy. Make no mistake - that's what we are. Church planting
is the front line. We have a ruthless, cunning, powerful enemy who
hates to see new churches established. (Fortunately we have an
infinitely more powerful friend who loves to see them!)

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers
for all of you, I always pray with joy [...] It is right for
me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my
heart [...] God can testify how I long for all of you with
the affection of Christ Jesus.

- Philippians 1:3-8

This may be the biggest issue for some people, and legitimately.
When you leave a big, established church to plant a new church, you
leave a lot of friends behind. In our cases, that includes all the
people we wrote and performed pantomimes with, went on holiday with;
the couples who got married at the same time as us, had their
children at the same time. Their children are now all growing up
together, without Danny and Matthew. This is hard. There's
no point in pretending it's not.

New Testament church planters faced exactly that issue. Look at the
strong language Paul uses in expressing how he misses his friends:

``Brothers, when we were torn away from you for a short time
(in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we
made every effort to see you. For we wanted to come to
you - certainly I, Paul, did, again and again.''
- 1 Thessalonians 2:17-18

``Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be
filled with joy.''
- 2 Timothy 1:4

``Timothy [...] has told us that you always have pleasant
memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also
long to see you.''
- 1 Thessalonians 3:6

There are two reasons why we suffer from this.

Firstly, church plants are small, at least to begin with. A small
church can't provide a big peer-group, so there's not a big ``pool''
to choose our friends from. In my case, for example, that means
that there are no other football fans or scientists in the church.
It's also part of the reason for the problem of not having enough
men.

Secondly, church plants are by their very nature new. We're thrown
together with co-workers and have to start working together straight
away. It's a strange situation to try to build friendships in, and
it shouldn't really surprise us if we don't have the the depth and
intimacy and immediacy with our new friends that we still have with
old friends - people who we've got to know over years.

There's nothing wrong with that! That's why Paul wanted to see his
old friends so much. We certainly hope that in time, that level of
friendship will build up within the new church, but if it doesn't
happen overnight, that's not ``sinful''!

While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the
interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples
and asked them, ``Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you
believed?'' They answered, ``No, we have not even heard that
there is a Holy Spirit.''

- Acts 19:1-2

These people were clueless. They're called ``disciples'' (that is,
Christians) but they'd not even heard of the Holy Spirit! (Which
rather puts the problems of conservative evangelicals in
perspective!) They were isolated from proper teaching because they
were on the front line - just like the rapidly growing churches in
China today which for all their blessing acknowledge a massive need
for solid, biblical teaching.

Similarly, an army unit on the front line is much less well
supported than one further back. Front-line units don't have
luxuries such as catering, recreation facilities or even basic
cleanliness than more withdrawn units enjoy - but they are the soldiers
who actually win battles.

There are lots of things that new, small churches can't provide for
their members, either because the resources aren't there are at all
among the few members, of because the gifted people are busy doing
other things. They include:

Top-notch bible teaching

Worship & particularly music

Pastoring

Big music/drama groups, etc., that can support members
in those ministries and help them develop (but remember that
``ministry'' means ``service'': if what you want to do doesn't
serve the church, it's not a ministry.)

We may as well admit that we simply will not get these things in a
small new chirch with its eyes primarily on evangelism. We strive
to provide them, but you simply won't get John Stott-quality bible
teaching from a computer programmer who's running an Alpha in his
spare time.

In light of this, we need to give more time to our own bible reading
and study - which is not exactly a bad plan anyway!

``Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked
night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we
preached the gospel of God to you.''

- 1 Thessalonians 2:9

Let's face it: planting churches is hard, hard work. There is so
much to do, and much of it is very unglamorous: admin work, phoning
round venues for events, photocopying, fetching and carring, child
care for creches, and much much more. It's hard. It's
demanding. Sorry, folks, that's just what it's like - especially if
we want to have public meetings of a quality that attract guests.

Even worse, the work that needs doing includes work we don't feel
``called to''. In a church plant situation, you basically need to
knuckle down and do it anyway. Consider the case of Philip:

The Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, ``It
would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word
of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men
from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and
wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them.''
[...] They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy
Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and
Nicolas.
[...]
A great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem,
and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea
and Samaria. [...] Those who had been scattered preached the
word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in
Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. When the crowds
heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all
paid close attention to what he said.

Jesus said to them, ``I tell you the truth, unless you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life
in you.
[...]
From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer
followed him.

- John 6:53-66

This problem is not covered much by the book of Acts because early
church was more successful than us! In part, this is because they
had learned the lessons we're starting to learn now.

So to summarise, in planting churches, we are: isolated from our
friends, cut off from good bible-teaching and other such support
ministries, constantly working hard, often not seeing much in the
way of results, and subject to direct attacks from the enemy that
may affect our family, our health, our homes and our pockets.

When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the
rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap
was left in it - though up to that time I had not set the
doors in the gates - Sanballat and Geshem sent me this
message: ``Come, let us meet together in one of the villages
on the plain of Ono.'' But they were scheming to harm me; so
I sent messengers to them with this reply: ``I am carrying on
a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop
while I leave it and go down to you?'' Four times they sent
me the same message, and each time I gave them the same
answer.

- Nehemiah 6:1-4

We need to look beyond the week-in week-out practicalities of
booking halls, setting up PA, lugging pianos, preparing Alphas and
so on, and see the purpose of what we're doing: we're building the
church! We're constructing the body of Christ on earth!

That perspective makes an emormous difference to our attitude to
little jobs. In the middle ages, two craftsmen were carving stones
to be used in the walls of a cathedral. A passer-by asked them what
they were doing. The first one said, ``I'm carving stones'', the
second ``I'm building a cathedral!'' Whose work do you think was
better? Who do you think enjoyed his work the most?

Larry Tomczak talks about ``The twin heartbeat of God: built the
church, save the lost.''

Here's a lucky-dip selection of what the bible has to say on the
subject of keeping a right perspective:

``Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where
moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and
steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break
in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also.''
- Matthew 6:19-21

``I consider that our present sufferings are not worth
comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.''
- Romans 8:18

``I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing
in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine
righteous persons who do not need to repent.''
- Luke 15:7

``But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all
these things will be given to you as well.''
- Matthew 6:33

``Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time
we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.''
- Galatians 6:9

If you allow them to, some people will carry more than their share
of the burden: for example, Clare fetches the piano, leads worship
and takes the piano back to its home after every All Bar One
meeting: someone could have noticed that and helped.

Though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world
does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the
world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish
strongholds.

- 2 Corinthians 10:3-4

In the end, the church that Jesus wants will only be established
here through the power of God. The promise of God was clear in the
Old Testament, and it's just as true today, as Yonggi Cho's church
of 600000 members can testify:

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble
themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their
wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive
their sin and will heal their land.